Vampire In London
by Jedidragoon
Summary: Sherlock Holmes has retired to Sussex downs and is attack one evening while out for a walk. He awakes to find himself a vampire and the target for some killer. now he must figure out who is trying to kill him and who his mysterious attacker was.
1. Chapter 1

**The situational awareness that I had developed in the streets of london had not deserted me in my years of retirement. Now I was keenly aware of someone following me over the sussex downs. The only beings that I had an occasion to meet in my wanderings were the fat sheep who grazed on the soft springy grass. As for my follower, I had to admit that he was finding the few good hiding places behind me so that I couldn't get a good look at him with my occasional glances.**

I made my way to a slight ravine that offered a number of rocky out crops that I could perhaps hide behind. As I ambled towards the ravine, the stranger seemed to speed up his trailing. The ravine no longer seemed as desirable a location as I first thought. I was already entering it and could not change course without arousing suspicion.

The moment that I entered, Sped up and hurried towards a bend in the ravine. I knew from previous walks that there was a good area to climb here. Soon I was safely out of sight and proceed to climb as fas as a sixty one year old man could. Under my breath, I muttered curses about the disadvantages of old age. In my younger years, i would have had no trouble scaling this small rocky wall.

I was soon at the top and laid down so I could peer down into the ravine and see my stalker. The time seemed to stretch on infinitely and caused me to frown. The stranger was no where to be seen and I knew for a fact that they hadn't been that far behind me. My brows furrowed as scanned the shadows for any sign of movement or someone hiding. I had too many attempts on my life to relax my guard because someone trailing me had vanished.

The attack from behind was not a total surprise but the complete silence that had preceded it had given me no warning at all. I found myself grabbed from behind by arms that seemed to be made of steel. The strength that I had tried to keep despite my old age was useless as if I was trying to bend foot thick steel bars. Then I felt warm breath on my neck as I struggled to free myself.

"This is for your own good, Sherlock," the voice was disguised and muffled.

As I tried to figure out who had captured me, I felt pain sear through my neck and then through me whole body. My breath caught in my throat in a gasp as my muscles went limp. For the first time I could remember, I stopped fighting and submitted to my opponent.

My keen sense were useless except for heightening my experience of terror. I tried to analyze what was happening to me in an attempt to keep my sanity. A sucking sensation was taking place on my throat where the pain was and I could feel something warm trickling on my throat. For once, I cursed my analyzing abilities. Someone or some thing was sucking my blood!

It was about then that my vision began to grow hazy and I felt myself growing weaker. Who was killing me like this? My body was growing weaker by the moment and terrible fatigue was engulfing me.

My attacker paused in his drinking, "I'm sorry, but this is the only way to save you."

Save me? That was my last thought before blackness engulfed me.


	2. Chapter 2

**I was unsure as to how long I slept but it couldn't have been much over two hours. My body was shaky and i felt as if I'd been unconscious for a week. It amazed me that I was still alive aft that attack. The amount of blood that I had lost should have killed me. **

I felt my neck and to my surprise my fingers came away clean from my wound. My well organized mind struggled to find some explanation for this phenomenon. One thing floated from the depths of my memory on an old case of mine. The father had feared his wife was some kind of blood sucker called a vampire. I tried hard to remember the definition that Watson had read to me that day. Since it proved not to be a case of the supernatural, i had made myself forget the facts concerning what a vampire was.

I rose to my feet and for the first time, I cursed myself for organizing my mind so that only necessary facts were held there. The best course that I could choose was to make my way home and look the confounded word up.

Then there was my attacker. I glanced around at the ground and saw that his tracks led to the edge of the ravine and vanished. I steeled myself and climbed quickly down the cliff face. A frown crept onto my face as I found myself climbing down as easily as I had once been able to in my younger days. Then I paused as I noticed that my rheumatism wasn't bothering me at all. It usually acted up at night after a long day even though I could ignore it. I had to admit that this was turning into a strange night for me.

Then I reached the bottom of the cliff and scanned the ground around the base. There were no marks at all except for mine from earlier. I stood there looking first towards the way that I'd entered the ravine and then on deeper in. The only tracks were my own and it was as if my attacker had taken flight over the rolling hills.

At last I was forced to shake my head and turn myself in the direction of my house. As I walked through the lonely fields, my mind focused on coming up with a solution as to what happened. It kept returning to the term of vampire that I had forgotten. I felt that I had to dredge up some scrap of knowledge about that word.

Drawing a deep breath, I cleared my mind and concentrated on the case that the word had come up in. The case had been about a wife who sucked blood from her infant son. So the term had to do with blood sucking. That had definitely happened in my case, but what had frightened the man who had contacted me. I knew of numerous cases of where me had drank blood and usually they killed their victims to do so...

My hand flew to my chest and even though I had been walking for some time, my heart did not beat inside my chest. Now my mind really railed against this as it was unlogical to the extreme. A man's heart must beat in order for him to live, walk, and...

It was then that I became aware of the fact that I wasn't breathing. That halted me in my tracks. A quick feel of my skin showed me that it was cool to the touch. The only logical explanation for the lack of a pulse and breathing was that I was dead, but then how did I retain all my facilities? I needed that book for the answer!

I broke out into a run. The scenery blurred by me and at one point i leaped over several sheep standing together. I halted and glanced back. There were five sheep huddled together and I'd just jumped over them as a child would a crack in the sidewalk. This made me look around and realize how far i'd come in just a short time. I was almost to my house and I knew for a fact that I'd been at least a mile away.

I was over come by a shaking as it sunk in that whatever had happened had drastically changed me. Watson had always made me out to be a cold thinking machine. In that he was wrong. I kept a tight leash on my emotions because I thought of myself akin to a machine. Emotion was a weakness that did not have a place in machinery designed to solve crimes. Now all my control was gone as this unknown factor hit me.

I drew several deep breaths and tried to regain control. This was not the time to allow emotion to rule me. With this problem, I would need all of my analytical resources to cope and deal with this dilemma.

Rising to my feet, I felt a little more in control as I turned my problem over in my mind as I would for a client. Data. I needed more data and to gain that I needed my books. I drew a deep breath and continued on towards my house with a little more feeling of control.

Soon I reached a slight hill over looking my house and looked down on it. The place was in flames and surrounded by a crowd. I recognized several members of the local police force. I dropped down onto my belly and watched them move around. Now what was I going to do?


	3. Chapter 3

**As I watched the people fight the flames, I became aware of a persistent thirst developing. I strove to ignore it as I had done in the past with many time wasting bodily functions. The longer I fought to ignore the thirst, the worst it grew. Until I had to crawl back away from the scene and lay on my back fighting it. **

At last it drove me to my feet and I found that I could sense the people below. The thirst awakened a hunger in me , but I fought e urge to go down to the people. ThenI remembered the sheep and I found myself running down the slope in the direction of the flock.

In my mouth, I felt my canine teeth lengthening and all that I could think aout was my thirst. What had happened to me? Who had done this to me and why?

The sheep were in sight and I saw that several had been shorn. One hobbled along near the back of the pack and I found myself focusing on that one. I slowed to a stalking walk and headed for that sheep. The flock didn't scatter before me but parted to allow me through. I approached the sheep cautiously and it looked up and met my gaze. I found myself willing it to hold still and it appeared to be frozen in place.

What happened next disgusted me, I went for a vein that lay near the surface of the skin and plunged my fangs into it. The warm blood filed my mouth and after three swallows was satisfied. Then a curious thing happened, I felt something draining from my canine teeth into the sheep. Once my fangs were empty, I found that I could jerk myself back away from the sheep. it looked up at me and then returned to contented grazing. The strange thing was that it looked healthier than it had before my... Feeding?

I shook my head and moved away from the flock. The case that I had tried in vain to remember came back to me. The woman had been accused of drinking her son's blood. The definition returned to me with full force. A corpse that raised from the dead to feed on the blood of the living. A part of me wished that I had forgotten that fact completely but it did give me my answer.

My mind raced as I tried to decide what my next action would be. The first thing that I now considered was the fat that it was only a few hours until sunrise. I was unsure wether it was true that vampires turned to dust in the sunlight but I didn't want to chance it. From there I would have to find out who had set fire to my residence and see if there was someone trying to kill me. The words of my attacker returned to me. It would appear that my stalker believed that if I became a vampire that it would save my life.

I sighed and felt frustrated at the lack of data. All the people swarming over my burning house made it impossible for me to return there tonight and gather clues. So I would have to deal with the approaching sun instead.

I decided that I would go to my second house that no one knew that I owned in the country. It was purchased after I did some work for the British government in uncovering an elusive spy. My friend Watson had written enough about my exploits that I felt a second secret home was the only feasible option. It would be a perfect place to relocate and gather my wits about me and it also had some reference books that I could utilize. I turned and started off across the little travel paths of the downs towards my second home.


End file.
